Brainglutton and Lumpy, WTF is this?

[Fotheringay-Phipps]

Question is what’s the racism? The joke does not play on any stereotypes or say anything negative about black people. It’s just a play on the common color black and word change in the two situations.

[octopus]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

There’s a common stupid idea that, astonishingly, Stringbean suffers from–well, there are like five bajillion stupid ideas Stringbean suffers from, but let’s focus–that “shitty” is the opposite of “funny.”

No, it’s not. Whether you find something funny has nothing to do with whether something is a shitty joke to make. A joke might be funny and still not be worth making, if for example it relies on crass racist stereotypes for its humor.

And of course everyone knows this. This is why you don’t make dead baby jokes to someone who just suffered a miscarriage, no matter how funny the joke would be. Only an idiot or a sociopath thinks that a joke that is funny is its own justification.

The question at hand is whether a joke that relies on racist stereotypes is okay to tell if you think it’s funny. I think if you’re willing to do that, there’s no daylight between you and a racist.

By that ridiculous standard all my favorite comedians, who are coincidentally black, are racist. Look, the world doesn’t conform to your subjective ideals.

[octopus]

@Fotheringay-Phipps

The other day I was in an establishment run by a friend of mine, and he was looking at his fluorescent light fixture which was out, and he announced “it’s the ballast”. I asked him how he knew and he said when the bulbs go out they get black at the ends, and since that hadn’t happened, it was the ballast. Then he added “you know how Obama said ‘it’s time for change’? Well when the ends of the bulbs start looking like Obama, then it’s time to change them”.

Is that a racist joke? (And does the answer change based on the fact that this guy is in fact a racist?)

If the common property is black with no judgement in how being black is innately bad or inferior I think it’s a stretch to call it racist regardless of the teller. It may have been intended to be racist. The true problem is that it isn’t very funny.

[elucidator]

Changing the world to fit our ideals is a priority for many of us. Maybe a futile endeavor, but that wouldn’t make it wrong so much as sad.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@octopus

By that ridiculous standard all my favorite comedians, who are coincidentally black, are racist. Look, the world doesn’t conform to your subjective ideals.

Read the thread, dummy:

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

So, you think a joke in which someone riffs off the racist stereotype other people hold about him is the same thing as a joke that depends on the exact same racist stereotype?

Lumpy isn’t the comedian in this analogy. He’s the white woman in the fancy car.

[aldiboronti]

@kayaker

It’s about knowing your audience. Lumpy, you do not know your audience.

You got it in one. Many on this board are totally humorless on subjects they consider taboo. Their call, but do they really need to ceaselessly lecture others who don’t have that particular pole up their ass?

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@aldiboronti

You got it in one. Many on this board are totally humorless on subjects they consider taboo. Their call, but do they really need to ceaselessly lecture others who don’t have that particular pole up their ass?

Again, whether the joke is funny is immaterial: the question is whether telling it is an asshole move. Do you seriously not get that distinction?

[Scumpup]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

I’d just like to point out the responses the thread has gotten to calling someone out for making a shitty racist joke:

1. Liberals have no sense of humor!
2. You just didn’t understand the joke!
3. You’re lynching him!

Number three is my favorite.

Nah, Princess, your favorite part of this is being the belle of the Calling Out Racism Ball. Lumpy’s joke was incredibly tone deaf and not even marginally funny. Right now he should be standing in a puddle of flop sweat. He has no history of racially inflammatory posts. This is in no way a theme with him. Don’t let that stand in the way of you fanning yourself and fainting, though.

[octopus]

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

Read the thread, dummy:

No. It doesn’t work that way. If a joke is funny, it is funny. I don’t care if someone’s feels get triggered. That said… I don’t tell jokes on forums or Facebook or whatever because quite often the audience don’t share the same sense of humor. I like Dave Chappelle but I’m not taking my grandmother to that show.

[you_with_the_face]

@Fotheringay-Phipps

The other day I was in an establishment run by a friend of mine, and he was looking at his fluorescent light fixture which was out, and he announced “it’s the ballast”. I asked him how he knew and he said when the bulbs go out they get black at the ends, and since that hadn’t happened, it was the ballast. Then he added “you know how Obama said ‘it’s time for change’? Well when the ends of the bulbs start looking like Obama, then it’s time to change them”.

Is that a racist joke? (And does the answer change based on the fact that this guy is in fact a racist?)

I would feel uncomfortable if that joke was told in my presence, and I would expect only a racist jerk to see humor in it. Not just because its completely vapid and cleverless, but because the punchline is that Obama has black skin. Not the brown skin that he actually has, but imaginary black skin. Racists have a tradition of seeing all black people as colored in the same tarry fashion, because their perceptions are distorted by stereotypes.

FWIW, I think Lumpy’s quip was a bit distasteful, but it wouldn’t make me uncomfortable if I overheard someone say it.

[IDtenT_Error]

@John_Mace

There once was a man from 's-Hertogenbosch

Hmmm… doesn’t quite have the right rhythm.

There once was a man from 's-Hertogenbosch
Who had a honking great moustosch
But since he was Dutch
He didn’t get much
Because the women all preferred … ummm …

No, you’re right. There’s nothing funny about the Dutch.

[elucidator]

Shit, the Germans are funnier!

[John_Mace]

@elucidator

Shit, the Germans are funnier!

Bavarians. But they’re practically Italian!

[Not_Carlson]

@BigT

No, because it’s a touchy subject and, if the joke doesn’t go well, it often comes off as actually being racist.

It’s kinda a Poe’s law of jokes: that bad jokes about racism and actual racism are generally indistinguishable. And since both racists and non-racists will defend themselves by claiming that it isn’t racism, that doesn’t help much either.

You’ve put what you really meant out there. Either people accept it or they don’t. Fighting only makes things worse.

FWIW, I believe you, as long as you don’t make a habit of these things. Brainglutton has made such a habit, though.

Well put. That about sums up my feelings.

@Left_Hand_of_Dorkness

OH SHIT EVERYONE LUMPY CAN’T BREATHE CUT HIM DOWN CUT HIM DOWN CUT HIM DOWN

Thank you for the first laugh I got from either of these threads.

@Fotheringay-Phipps

Is that a racist joke? (And does the answer change based on the fact that this guy is in fact a racist?)

Yes, racist, regardless of who’s telling it.
But the biggest offense here is to call such an inane utterance a joke. It is an insult to the art of comedy.

@Stringbean

Lumpy’s reply was funny unless you’re a butthurt stick-up-your-ass liberal.

This, however, is a brilliant parody of an arsehole.

[madmonk28]

@VinylTurnip

I hear Charles Krauthammer does a tight 10 minutes.

He used to, but he hasn’t done stand up in years.

Eta: rule #1 of making an offensive joke; be funny.

[elucidator]

Well, absurdity is a factor. As above, a joke about Vinny’s prom date looking like Chuck “Sour” Krauthammer is funny because it is absurd, ridiculous, whereas the same joke about his Mom would be offensive.

[Left_Hand_of_Dorkness]

@Not_Carlson

Thank you for the first laugh I got from either of these threads.

That’s impossible–I’m a humorless leftist with a stick up my ass who couldn’t possibly make a joke about something taboo like lynching!

[iiandyiiii]

@you_with_the_face

I would feel uncomfortable if that joke was told in my presence, and I would expect only a racist jerk to see humor in it. Not just because its completely vapid and cleverless, but because the punchline is that Obama has black skin. Not the brown skin that he actually has, but imaginary black skin. Racists have a tradition of seeing all black people as colored in the same tarry fashion, because their perceptions are distorted by stereotypes.

FWIW, I think Lumpy’s quip was a bit distasteful, but it wouldn’t make me uncomfortable if I overheard someone say it.

You put into the right words my feelings about the joke F-P repeated.

[VinylTurnip]

@elucidator

Well, absurdity is a factor. As above, a joke about Vinny’s prom date looking like Chuck “Sour” Krauthammer is funny because it is absurd, ridiculous, whereas the same joke about his Mom would be offensive.

Maybe, but at least I actually have a mother.

• VT, Lonesome wallflower with no corsage

[Fotheringay-Phipps]

Seems weak to me.

Besides for humor being highly subjective (and likely to be found lacking by those who object to it on other grounds) it’s not like the guy was a stand-up comedian on performance; he was a locksmith looking at his light fixture and tossing off an aside - the standards are a lot lower there. And the fact that “blacks” are not truly black is irrelevant. It was a play on words (and the ends of these bulbs don’t get truly black either FWIW).

I agree it sounds off-the-bat like something offensive and I was struck by it when I first heard it, but on thinking about it I couldn’t think of what was actually offensive about it. And ISTM that posters here are having a hard time with that part too.